


The One That Got Away

by tjs_whatnot



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drabble, Friendship, Hogwarts Era, Romance, Second War with Voldemort, The Quidditch Pitch: From Diagon Alley to Hogwarts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-09-14
Updated: 2008-09-14
Packaged: 2018-10-27 07:58:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10805028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tjs_whatnot/pseuds/tjs_whatnot
Summary: Lying bleeding at the Department of Mysteries Arthur Weasley thinks about fish. The one he caught and the one that got away...





	The One That Got Away

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Annie, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Quidditch Pitch](http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Quidditch_Pitch), which went offline in 2015 when the hosting expired, at a time I was not able to renew it. I contacted Open Doors, hoping to preserve the archive using an old backup, and began importing these works as an Open Doors-approved project in April 2017. Open Doors e-mailed all authors about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact us using the e-mail address on [The Quidditch Pitch collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/thequidditchpitch/profile).

Arthur had of course heard the Muggle saying that one’s life flashed before their eyes in the moments before death. But he had no idea why, while he lied bleeding to death in the Department of Mysteries, he thought of fish. The one he caught and the one that got away.

The fish had been wrong for him in every way; too old, too Muggle and too male. He’d never fished in that pond before; never was even curious about the species that inhabited it. But Byron had changed all that.

Arthur had been a strapping young man of 22 and had just about finished his training in Muggle Relations; his final test, working and living amongst them. Byron answered his advertisement. They became roommates of a tiny London flat Arthur had sublet for the summer.

Byron had taught him how to drive; how to shoot tequila, using the breasts of willing bar maidens to hold the salt and their teeth to hold the lime; and one night, after too many of those libations, showed him how to give a blow job while driving down the abandoned alleyway.

They quickly became lovers. That Arthur hadn’t thought of Byron for over 25 years had little to do with how he felt about him and more about the one he had caught; the one that was waiting; had been waiting for years for him to become a man of substance.

But in those fleeting moments between what was and sweet oblivion, he once again allowed his mind to wonder to those days; waking in his lovers strong arms; wrestling in bed Sunday mornings as they fought over who would retrieve the paper and fetch the tea.

He took the flash of death’s breath on his back to think of those hands, so strong as they caressed his leg; fingers so nimble as they worked their way to places he’d never imagined could feel that pleasure; hot breath nuzzled the secrets to the universe in Arthur's tingling ear.

But the voice that called him when fatality’s hold waned was of the only one he had ever loved. When he opened his wizened eyes and saw his beauty, his goddess, wrinkles and all, he smiled. Once again he put Byron away; to that place in his heart that only need be retrieved when the beats slowly began to fade.


End file.
